Profile: Injuries have slowed Cashner's progression into an elite starter, but his potential for greatness remains bright. He has yet to pitch any more than 100.1 innings of professional baseball (at any level) and should start the 2012 season in the Padres' bullpen. However, he has everything -- from pitches (fastball, slider and change) to power (96 mph fastball) -- necessary for a future transition to the rotation. If he can harness his ability without injuring himself again, he can easily be a 3.30 FIP starter or a 3.00 FIP or better reliever. (Bradley Woodrum)

The Quick Opinion: Cashner started the 2011 season as the Cubs' fifth starter, but a rotator cuff strain ended his season before it began. He returned as a reliever and, depending on how the Padres view his health issues, could stay in the pen. As a starter, he might be good (3.30 FIP); as a reliever, he might be elite (3.00 FIP or better).

Profile: Certain players just always tease us with their potential, and Cashner is definitely a charter member of that group. After a tantalizing 2010 debut, he missed most of 2011, and after an even more tantalizing 2012 campaign, he is yet again injured, and frustratingly so, as the injury came during an offseason hunting trip. As such, Cashner is unlikely to be available for opening day. When he is ready, he should slot into the starting rotation, and there is a hint of a reason to be excited. In 19 1/3 innings as a starter last year, Cashner posted a 28.8% strikeout rate and a 3.8% walk rate. But seriously, it was 19 1/3 innings, and six of them came against the Astros, so at this point, Cashner is more a choose-your-own-adventure book than he is The Great Gatsby. Should he actually be able to go more than two weeks without hurting himself, Cashner's combination of high heat, oodles of ground balls and run-dampening home ballpark could form a tremendous fantasy starter, but drafting him over more proven commodities in anything but the deepest dynasty-style leagues requires a healthy heaping of hope and faith. (Paul Swydan)

The Quick Opinion: Cashner is becoming quite boy-cried-wolfish, and his latest injury will put a dent in his draft status to start 2013. Instead of being a great sleeper for the middle rounds, he is probably just someone you should look to pick up on the waiver wire.

Profile: It doesn't always make sense to extrapolate out a second-half split and get all excited. But in the second half last season, Andrew Cashner's strikeout rate jumped (from 16.2% to 20.8%), his walk rate fell even further (from 7% to 6%), his homer rate almost halved (from .72 per nine to .48), and though some of it was batting average on balls in play (.293 to .234), not all of it was (3.68 FIP to 2.92). Another reason this isn't just the vagaries of the bouncing ball is that Cashner made a significant change to his arsenal in the middle of the season. The hard slider of old -- a knuckle slider -- came back, and his soft slider was sent packing. That was a significant change, as the whiff rate on his slider went from an underwhelming 8% to an above-average 18%. That alone is enough to fuel a jump in strikeout rate, and when paired with his fastball gas (95+) and decent change-up, the whole package screams sleeper. Of course, he's had injury issues in the past, and if the change away from the knuckle slider was for injury reasons, then perhaps those injury risks are augmented again. That said, some of his injuries were freak (slicing himself with a hunting knife, for example), and he's got enough promise to make him a worthy acquisition in this year's drafts. (Eno Sarris)

The Quick Opinion: Keep him away from dressing a deer, and maybe we can get Andrew Cashner through the full, healthy season that will make him a fantasy darling. After all, after a slight change to his arsenal, he has the weapons to put fear into National League lineups. Consider Cashner one of the better affordable pitchers with ace-like upside.

Profile: This is a tough player cap to write. As a website, we've spent thousands of words on Cashner. Maybe even more than the 6371 pitches the mulleted Padre has thrown so far in the big leagues. What makes it tough is that the stuff is clearly there -- he has a mid-nineties fastball that gets whiffs on the four-seamer (9%) and grounders on the two-seamer (60%), a nice changeup (13% whiffs), and two sliders that combine for good numbers (18%). With a recent adjustment, he even got his curve to average whiffs (11%) by using his four-seamer more up in the zone. But that recent adjustment was on the heels of another disabled list stint for his shoulder. Which has already happened twice in San Diego, once in Chicago. He's as smart as he is fragile as his stuff is smoking. It's the kind of combo upon which fantasy owners die upon. The next Mark Prior perhaps. I personally keep coming back to the fact that he's very smart, makes plenty of adjustments, and should have one or two amazing seasons with the strikeouts, the ground-balls, and (hopefully) the innings. And owning those seasons is worth a few mid-level investments along the way, because those seasons will be Cy-worthy. (Eno Sarris)

The Quick Opinion: You can't get more upside than a 94-mph fastball with a dipping slider, a diving change, a big curve, and good command. You can't get more downside than a recurring shoulder problem. Remember both of these things, but bid on Andrew Cashner in 2015.

Profile: The first time you watch Andrew Cashner pitch, you're sure you're watching the truth. He's an ace, you think. Two 95 mph fastballs with good movement, a change with good velocity gap and movement, and a slider that can look plus at times. The command is good enough to avoid walks, and he's had a couple seasons with enough health to put together 30 starts. But, since he's moved the rotation, the strikeout rate hasn't matched the stuff. Batters have squared up that big velocity fastball, too, sometimes for bouts of homeritis and sometimes for hits in play. And then you notice that his secondary stuff, though it gets above-average whiffs, doesn't include an elite pitch. He's fiddled with the grip on his slider, looking for that last piece. He's tried just trying to throw the fastball by guys, and changing his use of the four-seam and two-seam fastballs. Nothing really worked last year, and now his projections are more average than his stuff. There's still the chance that he finds that slider that works, and the fastball mix that puts him in the right counts and elicits softer contact, and stays healthy all year with excellent, Cy Young level results. But, three seasons into his career as a starter, at 29 years old, you're not as sure any more that you're watching the truth. (Eno Sarris)

The Quick Opinion: The fastballs are excellent, but the results haven't been yet, not for a full season. Andrew Cashner's velocity will get us all to the table, but be careful you don't spend too much on secondary stuff that's still looking to click perfectly.